


Character Study #1 - Caleb

by grownupgeekgirl



Category: Dredd (2012)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-30
Updated: 2014-07-30
Packaged: 2018-02-11 03:14:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2051472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grownupgeekgirl/pseuds/grownupgeekgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thoughts on Ma Ma's trusted lieutenant, Caleb.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Character Study #1 - Caleb

Caleb would walk through fire for Ma Ma.

He'd been her bodyguard first. He watched her, escorted her to her client meetings, made sure they got paid and held the money until he turned it over to The Boss. Handler, The Boss called it. Whatever. Ma had been planning a coup for a long time, planning her moves, but she wasn't as cunning then. The Boss caught on, decided he'd take what he thought was her greatest asset - her beauty. He thought she was trading sex for support, so he ended her whoring career. He never realized the loyalty Ma inspired. Not until Caleb burst into the room, gun drawn, after Ma screamed. The Boss' men had tried to keep him out. Three of them, all dead before the first hit the floor.

Caleb was really doing him a favor by shooting him - the ragged gelding wound bled, but not fast enough to kill him quickly. Ma's wounds healed badly, but Caleb thought they made her even more beautiful. Outward proof of how deadly she really was.

The name was his idea, actually. He understood that her true power was in deception. The dagger behind silk...fuck it, he wasn't a poet. But calling her gang a Clan - a family - there was power in that. She was the matriarch, with the power of life and death of every member of the clan. She decided when they were in, she decided how they'd go out. She was their mother, their Ma Ma.

The first months were rough, but she'd taken over Boss' top level digs and that gave her a tactical advantage. She consolidated her hold over The Boss' old network, purged the old and brought in new, young blood. Turned her attention to more lucrative production setups - things The Boss never got and so never bothered with. And right there behind her, every step of the way, was Caleb. 

He was so proud to be her lieutenant. She was going to be a legend - hell, she already was. And he'd been there since the beginning. He'd watched her rise - helped her whenever he could, but she was so much cannier than he was, it wasn't as much as he wanted. He was little more than muscle when they first teamed up. But she recognized his desire for more, and she gave him a little bit of power at a time, let him work his way up. 

She never fucked anyone who showed signs of wanting to climb the ranks. She told Caleb once, the night she won his undying loyalty, that she never really liked sex, but she liked what it got her. She'd been jacked up on something that night, something that made her open up, tell him things, offer...something. He'd wanted it, wanted her, for sure, who wouldn't? But she offered him more - partnership. Someone who would always have his back, who would always look out for him. They both knew she was smarter, sneakier, more vicious than he was...but he was better with every weapon, big and small. There was a reason Boss had put them together.

After that night, he never asked for more. Men who'd tried to take control, take her, died by his gun, his knife. It suited Ma Ma to show Peach Trees that she had such control over The Boss' best berserker. 

Caleb wondered sometimes if she would have been as violent if he hadn't been around. Though he figured she'd be dead if he wasn't around...he'd had to kill most of The Boss' soldiers when Ma Ma made her move. She'd repaid that loyalty in a surprising way - she took him into her confidence. He'd started getting into low-level fights for the thrill...with all outside threats gone, he was getting bored. But Ma Ma had him start making contacts among shock troops in other megablocks, looking for ways into their distribution networks. Clever woman, channeling his tactical instincts into business, keeping his violence under her control even more completely.

He cared about her, he supposed, but he'd never use those words...too much weakness in admitting what she meant to him.

Even crime lords need a friend.


End file.
